When it comes to the age of NHL players,
the league actually goes to extremes since there are those as young as 18 and
as old as 44. In fact, Czech winger Jaromir Jagr of the Florida Panthers is
believed to be the oldest athlete in any of the world’s major professional
sports leagues at the moment. Jagr is perhaps just a freak of nature though and
he’s definitely not the norm in the NHL these days. The league is witnessing a
youth movement at the moment with many of its top stars and prospects still even
a year or two away from drinking age, at least in the U.S.

The NHL has always been home to a handful
of excellent young players each season, but the league faced off for the
2016/17 campaign with over five dozen rookies in the clubs’ lineups. While
Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, John Gibson, Shayne Gostisbehere, Artemi Panarin,
and Colton Parayko led the way last year and were named to the All-Rookie Team,
there are newcomers who may overshadow them this season. These include Auston
Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander of the Toronto Maple Leafs along
with Jimmy Vesey of the New York Rangers, Patrik Laine of Winnipeg, Zach
Werenski of Columbus, Travis Konecny of Philadelphia and Matthew Tkachuk of
Calgary.

As of November 5th, Nylander,
Matthews, Laine and Werenski all had at least 10 points to their name from
anywhere between nine and 12 games played and a dozen of the league’s rookies
were scoring at over a 40-point per season pace. This isn’t to say there aren’t
plenty of fine veteran players left in the league, but just three of the top-20
scorers were over the age of 30. These were Evgeni Malkin of Pittsburgh, Joe
Pavelski of San Jose and Montreal’s Shea Weber. Many of the other top players
are still under the age of 24, including Mc David, Eichel, Nathan MacKinnon of
Colorado, Jonathan Drouin of Florida, Johnny Gaudreau of Calgary, Seth Jones of
Columbus and Florida’s Aaron Ekblad.

It appears that many young players are
simply better prepared for the rigors of NHL hockey these days and are more
physically developed and mature when they reach the league. This means some of
them are ready to help out their teams immediately and have a positive impact
on the sport. They’re proving that men as young as 18 and 19 are already good
enough to compete with seasoned veterans and established world stars. It should
also be noted that most of the league’s youngest players are generally playing
for weaker teams since they were taken with the highest draft picks from rebuilding
clubs.

This is why Edmonton has been able to stock
the cupboards with so many excellent young prospects over the years and Toronto
has several in their lineup this season. There’s a lot of pressure on these
youngsters to produce and help their team out immediately and most of them are
passing the test with flying colours. There’s no doubt the NHL has been is
getting younger and younger over the past decade with 25-year-old Matt Duchene
of Colorado already skating in his eight season as a prime example.

Some veteran players are finding it harder
to stick with their teams these days and older free agents often have a
difficult time finding bidders. We are seeing more and more veterans attending
training camps on professional tryout contracts while others such as Brooks
Laich, PA Parenteau, Ondrej Pavelec, Milan Michalek, Rob Scuderi and Mason
Raymond being sent to the minors, placed on waivers or simply released by their
respective clubs. This year’s crop of youngsters are bringing some much-needed
excitement and scoring into the game and the race for the Calder Trophy as the
rookie of the year should be one of the best in years. We might even see some
of them challenge for the league scoring title.